Special Report: Modern-Day Slavery
About Modern-Day Slavery, including in the United States of America
Slavery is no longer legal in any country, but according to the National Geographic, there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today, about 150,000 of them in the U.S. In 2011 President Obama recognized this "global travesty" in a Proclamation of January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
The chocolate industry is notorious for having supply chains that use child slaves to harvest cocoa beans. For a clear description of the situation, see Green America's report. The only way to ensure that buying chocolate is not contributing to the enslavement of children is to buy only certified Fairtrade chocolate.
Some Florida tomato growers use slaves to harvest their tomatoes. These are not people who work in sweatshops for poverty wages. These are people who are literally forced to work for others and treated as property. They are often obtained so cheaply they are considered disposable, without basic physical protections the expensive chattel slaves of the ante-bellum American South had.A historical view: Unitarian Universalists and slavery.
What responsible consumers can do to help
- Buy products that are certified Fairtrade.
- Spread the word. Dr. Kevin Bales, writing for the National Geographic, says "We all know about the United Nations weapons inspectors, who enforce the Conventions against Weapons of Mass Destruction, but where are the United Nations Slavery Inspectors? When the same effort is put behind searching out and ending slavery, there will be rapid change." Dr. Bales also notes that "In South Asia whole villages come to freedom when others help them form institutions such as small credit unions, inform them of their rights, and show them how to organize to fight for them. Slaves everywhere outnumber their masters. When we all stand with the slaves, their masters cannot keep them in bondage."
- Visit the website of Dr. Kevin Bales's organization, Free The Slaves, to see what you can do to make things better.
- Pressure supermarkets Publix, Stop & Shop, Giant, Kroger, Trader Joe's, Quiznos, and Walmart to sign Fair Food agreements with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to buy tomatoes only from growers that do not use slaves and provide decent working conditions for pickers.
- Work to pass legislation. California has passed the "California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010" law.
- National Geographic says "to report trafficking crimes to the U.S. Department of Justice, or to get help, call its toll-free hotline at 1-888-428-7851."
Links to Information on Modern-Day Slavery
Following are links collected by ResponsibleConsumer.net for further research. If you have comments or suggestions for other links, please email admin[at]responsibleconsumer.net with Slavery in the Subject line.
Article in The Guardian about Passover, Jewish history, and modern-day slavery.
Google search: "modern slavery"